Setting Rules (Starship combat)

Although Star Trek isn’t known for its nonstop action, ship-to-ship combat is still a central aspect of the setting, so this section mainly deals with space battles. There are a few other notes regarding Starfleet “currency” (in this campaign, Starfleet commanders must earn Requisition Points to upgrade their ships and crew), the Black Market, and the value of boardroom meeting scenes.

Design note: I had a lot of fun trying to balance the inherent complexity of Star Trek ship battles with the desired simplicity of a Savage Worlds game. I think there’s a decent balance here, mostly because two of the more ‘complex’ mechanics (rerouting power and targeting subsystems) are totally optional. They add flavour and a bit of tactical depth to battles, but a campaign can easily survive without them.

(It turns out this balance is tough to strike! One of my players almost mutinied when I told her there would be no ‘rotate shields’ mechanic.)

I also had a lot of fun rewriting the Critical Hits table. It’s always struck me as odd that in most Savage Worlds books, every Critical Hit has a pretty much equal chance of landing. That is, a cannonball has an equal chance of bouncing off your frigate’s hull as it does of blowing up the powder magazine. I tried something a bit different by building the Critical Hits around the 2d6 probabilities made famous by Settlers of Catan. Rolls of 6-8 cause the least ‘dramatic’ Crits, while rolls of 2 and 12 cause nightmare scenarios.